Search form

Shiffrin Wins Career Sixth Slalom

by

USSA

2014-01-05 05:40

Mikaela Shiffrin sliced through wet snow and rain to win the sixth Audi FIS Alpine World Cup slalom of her career with victory in Bormio. (Getty Images/AFP - Olivier Morin)

BORMIO, Italy (Jan. 5) - Teen Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, CO) sliced through sloppy snow and rain to win the Bormio slalom for her third straight Audi FIS Alpine World Cup top three finish. It was the sixth World Cup slalom victory of her young career and comes just 33 days before the start of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Leading by a slim .03 after the first run, Shiffrin powered through the rutted snow to hold off a hard-charging Marie Pietilae-Holmner of Sweden by .13 and bump her World Cup slalom points lead to 62 points over Austrian Marlies Schild, who finished sixth. Universal Sports Network will broadcast the race at 11 a.m. ET.

HIGHLIGHTS

Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, CO) powered through rutted and inconsistent snow in Bormio to win the sixth Audi FIS Alpine World Cup of her career.

It was the third straight World Cup podium for Shiffrin, who closed 2013 with back-to-back top-three finishes in Lienz, Austria.

She has now captured 13 World Cup podiums to make her the youngest alpine skier in U.S. history to do so.

Her sixth win also moves her to second on the slalom all-time list among American women, trailing only Tamara McKinney, who has nine.

Shiffrin bumped her World Cup slalom points lead to 62 over Austrian Marlies Schild, who finished sixth.

Leading by .03 after the first run, Shiffrin held off a hard-charging Marie Pietilae-Holmner of Sweden to win by .13 seconds.

Nastasia Noens of France was third. Resi Stiegler (Jackson Hole, WY) also started, but did not qualify for the top 30 final.

The race was a moved from Zagreb - where Shiffrin also won last year - due to lack of snow at the Croatian resort.

A Jan. 14 night race in Flachau, Austria is the final World Cup slalom prior to the U.S. Olympic Alpine Team being named on Jan. 26.

60 Minutes Sports will air an exclusive feature on Shiffrin Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 10 p.m. ET on Showtime.

QUOTESMikaela ShiffrinIt’s always good to keep success going. I’m used to skiing in this kind of conditions because in the East Coast it’s like this a lot. I just kind of get tough and go.

It was definitely a fight. I was really psyched to win again. It’s been a fight all season and I feel like if I’m not perfectly ready then the win goes to somebody else. So I was really trying to prepare myself to be ready to go today no matter what the conditions or the visibility. Having that mentality makes everything better. It was tough conditions but I was ready for it.

I did really want to win, but so did Maria [Pietilae-Holmner]; I think a lot of girls did. In the conditions, it’s just making the least amount of mistakes, and I walked away with the win. I’m very excited with how my season is going right now and I think I can do better too, so we’ll just have to keep working on it.

There’s been a lot of stories about the Mikaela and Marlies battle and it’s exciting. It creates a cool atmosphere around ski racing. It’s like Lenzerhiede last year when Tina won the first run and I won the second. That kind of a battle creates a really great story for the athletes as well.